I know a lot of Republicans have been disappointed with the emergence of a Democratic hegemony in Washington, so I thought I’d help cheer people up by turning to the panacea for Republican ailments: Ronald Reagan.

Obama might officially be our first black President, but the respect for Ronald Reagan in the African-American community is often overlooked. A few years ago, a friend of mine worked as a substitute teacher at an inner city high school. One class he worked in was doing a unit entitled, “Honoring the Legacy of Ronald Reagan.” The class was supposed to write short essays about Reagan. Here’s one of the essays he received:

Malcom J.

March 26, 2004

Ronald Reagan and I have been friends since I could remember. In 1980 he told me he was running for president. I was behind him all the way. He made the decision when he was governor of Cali. When he got the chance to run for president he ran against Jimmy Carter. When my homie win we just went out that night smokin and drinkin and grabbed our female and went to the hotel. Feb 1981: me and cuddie [Reagan] and his bodyguard was at the club. We was getting ready to get gone. We grab a couple honeys. We get outside the club–there was a man dressed all in black. We had whooped him last week. He came back with the heat. He shot double R in the shoulder, shot the bodyguard in the back. I got hit in the chest.

An essay by another student entitled “Ronald Reagan: A Thug’s Life” compared Ronald Reagan to the rapper 50 Cent. As a middle-aged black man living in Cleveland, I find these narratives both touching and compelling.

Please use this thread to share your own personal experiences with Ronald Reagan.

Sorry about that. I just think it’s interesting to find out that bloggers may be different than how I had pictured them in my head. (For some reason, I thought you were a female grad student living in Cambridge. Clearly, my reading comprehension skills leave much to be desired.)

One of my formative experiences was having a young black man who was moving my family tell me that Ronald Reagan hates black people. I realize this is anecdotal, but I’ve had white people also tell me that they always suspected Ronald Reagan of being deeply racist.

Morris eventually decided to scrap writing a straight biography and turn his piece into a faux historical memoir about the President told from the viewpoint of a semi-fictional peer from the same town as Ronald Reagan: Edmund Morris himself. The person comes from the same town as, continually encounters and later keeps track of Reagan. The first time the fictional narrator sees him is at a 1926 football game in Dixon, Illinois. He asks a friend who the fellow running down the field “with extraordinary grace” is, and he is informed that it’s “Dutch” Reagan.

The biography has caused confusion in that it contains a few characters who never existed, including scenes where they interact with real people. Morris goes so far as to include misleading endnotes about such imaginary characters to thoroughly confuse his reading audience. Elsewhere, scenes are dramaticized or completely made up.

In late May or early June 1975, I picketted against Ronald Reagan on behalf of the United Farm Workers (a union headed by Cesar Chavez), when he came to speak at some conference at a hotel in Ohio.

He was gov of California at the time, and somehow did something that forced the Teamsters to represent the farm workers instead of UFW and Chavez. The UFW considered it a dirty trick, and a betrayal by Reagan.

It was the time when there was a UFW boycott against California lettuce and grapes, unless there was a UFW seal on the cartons.

My sign said “Reagan is a grapist.”

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Other brushes with greatness:

In April 1984, I met Elders Bruce McConkie and Dallin Oaks at a boarding gate area at the St. Louis airport. They were returning to SLC after presiding at a stake conference. McConkie was apparently showing the ropes to Oaks about how apostles do stake conferences, as Elder Oaks was still new at the time. I was on my way to report to the MTC to start a mission, and was in suit with a black name-tag. I felt like a private in the presence of generals.

In spring 1974, while our track team was spending spring break at the University of Florida/Gainesville, we lived in (camped out in) one of the field houses next to a track. I was once in the shower room at the same time as Marti Liquori.

John Mansfield: Yes, I think young Malcolm must have been heavily influenced by Dutch. Not to mention Tupac.

Orwell: You don’t know me. But once you finish your bachelor’s degree at Utah Valley, you should consider OSU for grad school. They’ve got a pretty strong business program.

Bookslinger: “Reagan is a grapist”?! LOL. You were close with Parma. I’m in Middleburg Heights. And yes, I do have a pink flamingo on my front lawn. In fact, I’ve got a flock of them. And a garden gnome.

We have selective memories, don’t we? I choose to remember that under Reagan, wage disparity grew at its most rapid pace to that time (he’s been eclipsed by these past 8 years), the average worker actually lost income in real dollars,and the national debt nearly quadrupled. Don’t blame that excess spending on the Democrats. Congress actually reduced the deficits in six out of his 8 proposed budgets.